Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the master
 

Should a magicuser remain their action after they became communion slave? I found the unit id actually determined if the slave can act in the battle. If the slave act before the master(the slave have a lower unit id), he can act normally before his master take action. But if he/she has a higher unit id and act after the master, he can never take any action as long as the master is casting spells. Is it wanted or a bug?

As an example. please find the attachment for battle report. In the map gurus(the slave) is created before celestial masters(the master), so all of them spam stellar cascades happily. But if you modify the map to create them after the celestial masters, they will never move a finger in the battlefield...

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

That's exactly as it should be. Originally a communion slave was not supposed to have any actions after casting the slave spell, no matter what. Slaves acting as long as they had a lower id than the master was a bug, but it was decided to leave it in as a feature to enable reverse communions and to allow for a larger number of strategies built around them,

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

Got it. Thanks.

Then why not make all slaves act normally? making unit's action depend on their id looks weird.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

Understandably, it would make more sense if you could decide for yourself, rather than having it arbitrarily handled on a per unit basis.

But perhaps, that ambiguity is why it wasn't seen as a big problem, communions might be a bit overly powerful if you could so easily pick and choose how you make it affect your units.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

It is not entirely intentional. We might fix it at a later date, but since a whole bunch of strategies have evolved around the matter I consider it an interesting, although weird feature that is not too high on our fix list.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

I'd love it 'fixed' personally. Slaves not being able to cast at all regardless of order.

To simulate the other effect, you could let masters commune with each other without having any slaves there, or have another spell like "communion/sabbath member/caster" which allows them to share in the communion and cast.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

I love the way it operates now.

However, if you wanted to change it so the slaves can cast even if they are after the master, that would be good.

Its not overpowered in any way and has the BIG drawback that if you get it wrong, you end up losing all the mages. I have seen 30+ mages die loads of times.

There are loads of counters to communions like earthquake, rain of stones and any other entire battlefield damaging spells. Also, assasination, disease demons, seeking arrows etc... also upset communions. So communions are not really that powerful.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

+1, even if I understand perfectly why it isn't a "feature" so much in need of a priority fixing. ^_^

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

> However, if you wanted to change it so the slaves can cast even if they are after the master, that would be good.

A fix would make slaves unable to cast spells, but not unable to act. A master buffing slave thugs brought into the communion with matrixes is intended, but the slaves casting spells for themselves is not. The masters are supposed to do the casting instead of the slaves.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

> However, if you wanted to change it so the slaves can cast even if they are after the master, that would be good.

A fix would make slaves unable to cast spells, but not unable to act. A master buffing slave thugs brought into the communion with matrixes is intended, but the slaves casting spells for themselves is not. The masters are supposed to do the casting instead of the slaves.

Edit: this is not a matter of balance, as much as a matter of thematics. Give up something to get something.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

That seems the really best idea, man ;)

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

So all of those communion buddies could get their normal attacks instead of just standing around doing nothing? Sounds good to me!

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

Well, the big impact that this change would have is the reverse communion, and depending on how such a fix is implemented it could still preserve the same strategic depth of the communion. The reverse communion is conceptually like buffing thugs, only you're buffing the slaves for casting using summon earthpower, power of the spheres, etc. Seems thematically consistent if the intent is that the slaves can be buffed. Dunno if the code might make such a check difficult, but ideally the fix would make it so that slaves can't cast if any master casts a spell that turn regardless of sequence - but can cast if no master is casting for that turn. That way you could deploy the communion, the masters cast buffs and are then scripted to a non casting order while the slaves take over. To me at least this seems thematic, balanced, intuitive, and consistent while leaving in the depth.

Also, KO I wanted to point out that in the current state slaves are unable to take any action at all after a master casts, including non-casting actions. In the case of buffing slaves for melee it's necessary to retreat the masters or give them bow and script them to fire or something similar. This is different than what you mention, just wanted to bring it up if you ever do take a look at this.

Re: Is it a bug? Communion slave lost action if their unit id is higher than the mast
 

Baalz's suggestion is excellent. What I really want though, is a hold your position command after turn 5, so we do not have to do the retreat/fire thing. Staying behind troops can be very dangerous for fragile mages.